


Hearts are Meant to be Broken

by EarthMom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Not Happy, Oblivious Shiro (Voltron), Other, Pining Lance (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Sad Shiro (Voltron), Sorry Not Sorry, heart of voltron, shangst, they dont end up together, this is hella sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 02:17:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18298259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthMom/pseuds/EarthMom
Summary: Lance is the heart of Voltron. He knows what that means. Now it's time the rest of the team figures out.Kinda Langst. Kinda Shangst. I wrote this at 3 am. Read the tags.





	Hearts are Meant to be Broken

Lance was so scared.

He was shooting Galra centriues left and right. They didn't slow down. He was covering Keith's back. Had too. Keith was busy mauling anything that dared to come from the other side of the hallway. Lance took a breath when the centriues started coming in less numbers but he knew that that was probably a bad sign. He knew the Galra didn't just give up.

That's when he saw it. The Galra soldier in the vents, gun pointed directly at Keith's back. Lance surveyed the gun for a minute and realized he had never seen that Galra weapon. He recognized the look in the soldiers eye as he took aim though. He didn't register the sound of the shot or Keith yelling "what the hell" as Lance pushed him to the ground. The soldier fled after seeing his shot hit one of the targets. The centuries left too. As if mocking them, as if saying 'We have won. We have taken something from you.'

It didn't take long for Lance to realize the shot held some sort of poison. His vision was blurry and he felt like vomiting but also hungry at the same time. Keith held Lance in his arms as he told Allura and Coran to ready a pod. He said nothing to the others pestering questions just telling them to hurry to his location.

"Why, Lance? Why did you shove me out of the way? Don't you know we need you? What were you thinking?" Keith said with more bite than he meant to.

"You're not hurt that's what matters." The gunshot in his side hurt and he couldn't move his legs due to the assumed poison. He chuckled quietly which lead to him coughing up some blood.

"But you're hurt! How is that at all okay. You're reasoning is whack!" Keith wasn't really angry. He knew why Lance threw himself in front of that shot. He would have done the same thing for him. But jesus fuck this was bullshit. If Lance died here he'd never forgive himself. That thought had tears running down the red paladins face.

Lance knew he was dying. He was seeing his life, his sad, poor excuse for a life, flashing before his eyes. Verionica and him practicing his dance routines together. Rachel and him fighting over the last garlic knot. Luis, Marco and him playing pranks on the girls. His family, big and loud and stubborn but undeniably his. Then he saw his new family. Fighting with Keith that turned into playful banter. Dragging Pidge away from her work to play video games. Baking alongside Hunk. Cleaning with Coran. The one time Allura actually laughed at his joke. Shiro...just ogling Shiro. Never really allowing himself to get close to Shiro because he knew how stupid he was wanting something he couldn't have. He knew he was weak, and pathetic, and undeserving. He knew but somehow he had no regrets. This was his small, broken space family and he wouldn't trade it for anything. Lance turned on his comms. He wanted his teammates to hear his last words.

"Ya know, I'd finally figured it out." Keith's tears halted as he looked at Lance. "What being the blue paladin means" Lance coughed, a wet sound Keith did not like. "Well not on my own. Blue she, she helped me, she helps me a lot. She's so..." Lance trailed off his eyes rolling back for a second. Keith all but slapped him to get him to keep talking, something Keith didn't think he'd ever wish for so badly. "Right so if the Voltron team is like a body...The blue paladin is the heart. Hearts are great ya know. Hearts mean kindness, love, and they won't give up on you no matter how much you want them too." Lance smiled bittersweetly at that. "Trust me, you have no idea how many hours of my life I spent trying to will my heart to stop. Lemme tell you, they are some stubborn pieces of shit." Lance laughed wetly, a laugh that didn't reach his eyes. "But think of it this way. Hearts need a rib cage to protect them. They are sensitive and squishy and their main use is to keep you alive."

Lance's eyes glazed over for a second and Keith thought he had lost him and was about to start CPR before Lance choked out. "So think of it this way. My main use is to take care of you...of this team. To keep this team happy and healthy. My main purpose is to keep you alive. Alive in every sense of the word. When you're sad, I'm sad. When you're hurt, I'm hurt." Lance stated solemnly.

"What Lance no, that....that's a load of bullshit and you know it. And stop talking like you're leaving me because you're not the others will be here any second." Keith knew that that wasn't true. He heard the fighting down the hall. He knew his team was preoccupied. He knew Lance talking like this through their comms was not helping the situation. Let's face it though, a talking Lance was better than an asleep Lance right now. That concussion, that Keith knew he had as he looked at the literal indent of Lance's skull form his teammates meeting with the wall, was not going away.

"Hearts get beat up a lot." Lance nodded, or at least tried too but he couldn't really tell if he could move, at his statement matter of factually. "They are fiercely loyal. You could berate them, you could pump them full of crap but they try their hardest for you until the end." Keith was ugly crying. Like full on. Too bad Lance couldn't see him. Couldn't really see anything. Black was a fitting color for him to, well, not see he thought. A color he used to hate until it meant a certain someone with a metal arm and star eyes.

"I am the heart of Voltron" Lance said quietly. Like no one was allowed to question it. "That means you could purposefully stab me and I'd say 'don't worry, it's not your fault.' Pidge could call me every name she ever has jokingly, mean it wholeheartedly and I'd just nod. Hunk could look me in the eyes and say he never really thought of me as a friend and I'd smile and say 'that's ok.' Allura could call me a disgrace. Coran could call me annoying." Lance heaved a breath. He was fading but he wasn't done yet. He wasn't ready to give up just yet. "And Shiro, well he could do just about anything. He could not love me back. He could call me disgusting. He could break me beyond repair."

Shiro paused in the middle of battle, something he knew never to do but shock overtook him. Had he heard Lance right? Did Lance...really love him too? This was unfair. Unfair in every sense of the word. Shiro continued fighting as Lance continued speaking. A newfound, animalistic need to get to his teammate, his could be lover if the deities granted him the time.

"It's really funny now that I'm taking the time to think about it. Head and Heart, they never agree, can never see eye to eye. They are different in every sense of the word, yet you need both to survive." Lance was ready now. He'd said it. He'd told his best kept secret. "Tell my family I love them...tell them lies. Tell them how I was a hero...tell them...tell them I did good..."

"Lance, you idiot just hold on a little longer." Keith choked out. "Come on, if you're our heart keep beating for us. Don't give up on us!" Sobs wrecked through Keith body.

"I'm....not giving up on you. Ever. I love you...all of you. You're my space family....I found you....all on my own....we are little...and broken...but still good."

"Really Lance? A Lilo and Stitch reference? Now?" Pidge cried out over the comms. She swore she hated her makeshift brother. The one who'd play pranks with her but wouldn't let her stay up too late.

"Yeah...ya know...thats my favorite movie....watch it for me will ya? Keith reminds me of Stitch..."

Keith scoffed, wet and ugly but come on. But then he sobbed. He sobbed as he some how physically felt Lance pass right in his arms. Keith was screaming as Shiro and the others had just made it to the hall they were in. Moments too late.

Shiro basically forced Lance out of Keith's arms and immediately tried performing CPR as Hunk and Pidge secured their little space in the hallway.

Keith knew though. He knew Lance was not waking up. Keith commed the Castle "Coran...cancel the pod."

"What why...oh....oh my...."

"No Coran keep the pod Lance is gonna be fine....he's just unconscious...he's gonna be okay once we throw him in."

"Shiro...Shiro c'mon....you know..."

"No Keith, you don't know...he's gonna be fine!"

"Well whether he's okay or not we need to get out of here" Hunk said being the voice of reason, surprising everyone as his best friend was laying dead behind him. Keith is sure it just hasn't sunk in yet.

Shiro carried Lance into the castle. He basically fought his was into the med bay and shoved Lance in the pod after shoving him in the healing suit. Poor Lance. If he was alive that'd probably really hurt.

"I.... I'm sorry Shiro..." Allura said as she looked over Coran's shoulders at the stats. Coran couldn't see much through his tears but he saw enough.

No heartbeat, no brain activity. No Lance. Just like that, they lost the heart of Voltron.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I think this is kinda bad but I'm trying to get into the habit of sharing my works no matter what I think of them. I wrote this incredibly tired so I apologize for any mistakes. Also yes, I purposefully made Lance's last words how Keith reminds him of Stitch.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [My memories.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18329345) by [Nanartist707](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanartist707/pseuds/Nanartist707)




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